Friend or FOE

I have read that some people dislike sewing wit foe, and even that they think foe looks cheap and adds a "home made" aesthetic to garments. 

And honestly it can. 

Fold over elastic can be a royal pain in the butt if you don't work with it correctly. 

But once you get the hang of it your items stop lettuce edging and you stop getting those weird skipped stitches and folded bits. 

I think a lot of people will use FOE once or twice and decide that it's not for them. 

But I had to use it three or four times before I got professional results. 

Here is my fourth time using FOE 

Can you say curly!

But I have found a way to sew up FOE that is all but bulletproof. 

First off, you sew it on in two passes. 

The first time you are stitching it to your fabric with the foe laying wrong side up and the right side of your fabric facing you. 

I recommend woolly nylon bobbin thread if you have it. So that the stitches on the FOE will be soft on your skin. 

Then once the FOE is stitched down and secured, your fold it over! 

I find that if you use lots of pins you can stich it without having to worry about folding it as you go. 

This lets your feed digs move the fabric and elastic with minimal amounts of resistance. 

Which means no lettuce edges!!! 

Now I have found that one can sew right over the pins without any major catastrophes. 

I know I know...sewing over pins is evil and bad and wrong.... 

But it makes sewing in fold over elastic so much easier! 

I mean from the video you can see that it's still not exactly a breeze. I had to stop and lift my foot and smooth it out a bit. 

And I was going relatively slow...

But it was still easier then it could have been! 

And before I forget, there's one other great thing about FOE, 

You can use it as the strap and connect it smoothly. 

All you have to do is measure your strap length, and have that amount of elastic hanging off the end of the top of your bra. And then you have a professional looking strap!

What could be better!